Vientiane, 14.12.2015,

The 3rd Regional TVET Conference which took place on December 14 and 15 in Vientiane, Lao PDR, was officially opened by Mr Thomas Silberhorn, Parliamentary State Secretary to the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation (BMZ), and Dr Phankham Viphavanh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Sports (MoES). The delegation from Viet Nam headed by Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh, Deputy Director of the General Directorate for Vocational Training (GDVT) of MoLISA attended the opening speeches and contributed actively to the working groups by presenting and discussing good practices from Viet Nam.

In his opening remarks, Mr Silberhorn stressed the importance of TVET for development: “TVET is a decisive factor for social and economic development and is therefore included in the international political agenda as for example in the Sustainable Development Goals and the “Education for All” objectives”.

Dr Viphavanh stated that “the 3rd Regional Conference on TVET will provide a good opportunity to share experiences and opinions about the current status of TVET in the region and beyond. It also provides the opportunity to look forward to identifying new challenges and ways and methods to deal with them in a successful manner”.

In the session on “Work process oriented TVET” Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang, Rector of the Ho Chi Minh Vocational College of Technology (HVCT), Mr. Nguyen Van Thien, General Director of Binh Duong Water Supply – Sewerage -Environment Co. Ltd. and Ms. Mai Phan, team leader of the field of activity TVET for Skilled Workers in the Wastewater Sector, GIZ, shared their experience in setting up a cooperative training programme for Sewerage Engineering Technicians with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders (enterprises, industry association, TVET institute, national government) and gave practical insights into ways for establishing work-based training by jointly developing the occupational standard, training programme and training materials and in parallel providing practice-oriented further training for teaching staff at the college and for in-company trainers. The panelists from Viet Nam also discussed the challenges in the implementation process of work process oriented TVET, for example how to create incentives for enterprises and how to achieve a replication of best practices in the system.

Dr. Vu Xuan Hung, Director of the National Institute for Vocational Training (NIVT) and Ms. Britta Van Erckelens, team leader of the field of activity System Advisory, GIZ, shared, in the session on “TVET Governance”, the example of TVET reporting in Viet Nam as an instrument for evidence-based policy-making on the national level as well as a tool which can support regional integration. Presenting the newly published 3^rd National TVET Report of Viet Nam, which is a result of the trilateral cooperation of NIVT, BIBB and GIZ, Dr. Hung emphasized that strong stakeholder involvement in the development of the report is a key success factor to ensure the use of the TVET report on the policy level. The example of TVET reporting in Viet Nam can serve as a model for other ASEAN countries, such as the Philippines, which plan to also implement the instrument of national TVET reporting.

The head of the Vietnamese delegation Mr. Minh summarized the positive outcome of the conference: “The topics of the conference reflect well the challenges the countries in the region are facing. It was a great opportunity to present our best practices as well as to exchange with and to learn from other countries. We are looking forward to a continuous and fruitful exchange especially on the topics social marketing and streaming to TVET, engaging enterprises in TVET, and Green TVET which is a new area for Viet Nam where we can learn from more advanced economies in the region such as Singapore and Malaysia.”